


Christmas in Bellwood

by Morning66



Category: Ben 10 Series
Genre: Christmas, Family, Gen, Kinda fluff?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:08:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25390618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morning66/pseuds/Morning66
Summary: They go to Ben’s house for Christmas the year Gwen starts college.
Relationships: Ben Tennyson & Gwen Tennyson
Comments: 4
Kudos: 23





	Christmas in Bellwood

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!! :D
> 
> Basically kinda half Gwen Ben friendship and half a study of the Tennyson family??? Kinda?

They go to Ben’s house for Christmas the year Gwen starts college. Her mother hadn’t wanted to go, hadn’t wanted to celebrate with Frank’s family, but her sister was out of town and for all Natalie disliked the Tennyson’s, she had too much tact to decline Sandra’s invitation, what with them being in Bellwood with no plans.

Christmas morning is quiet and contained, something Gwen isn’t used to, having spent the past several months in the noisy, boisterous dorms. She’d never thought she’d miss the chaos of girls blasting music at all hours of the night and fighting with their boyfriends until their voices were raw, but she does. They had opened presents, all plain, practical gifts: a planner, a new pen set, socks, a pan. 

Afterwards they’d gone to church, Gwen wearing the dress her mother had laid out for her on her bed. Gwen has seen the universe, seen more things than just about anyone on Earth who’s not related to her and she’s pretty sure she doesn’t believe in the God of her childhood. Now, whenever she listens to the man in front drone on, all she can think of is Ben’s Alien X, which makes her shiver and pull her light sweater tighter around herself.

On the ride to Ben’s, Gwen sits in the backseat, feeling younger than she has in years. Even before leaving for school it was rare that she rode with both her parents due to their busy work schedules and her exceptionally busy life. 

She remembers when she and Kenny were little they used to go on day trips to the park and the mall, but that was years and lifetimes ago. Ken’s not here today, which is honestly nothing new. Her brother has become increasingly absent as the years have passed, fading from a daily figure, a constant role-model, to a specter that occasionally appears at holidays and birthdays. 

This year he’s spending Christmas with his girlfriend Sarah’s family in Philadelphia and though their parents were disappointed he wasn’t coming home, they had smiled and nodded. They like Sarah. 

Gwen’s met Sarah twice in the three years Ken has dated her, once last Thanksgiving and once when she visited Ken at college. Gwen had liked her in a vague sort of way, not the type of person she’d be friends with, but nice all the same. She was blonde, blue-eyed, and studying nursing, the quintessential All-American girl from some family TV show that Gwen’s too tired to watch at the end of the day. 

Gwen often wonders if Ken likes Sarah so much for her normalcy, if he likes spending the holidays with her family because there are no magical sisters or cousins who turn into aliens. She knows that her mother’s adoration of Sarah lies in this, lies in her view of Sarah as prim, proper, and normal.

Over the summer she had listened from the other room as her mother discussed the possibility of marriage with Ken, offered him money to help buy an engagement ring. He’d said he wasn’t ready, not yet, but she knows that when he is, he’ll have their full support, something Gwen doesn’t think she’ll ever know. Her parents barely acknowledge Kevin. For God’s sake her mom still calls him Ben’s friend, like that’s all he is, like that’s the only and most important connection he has to them.

On the way over, her mom peppers her with questions she’s already asked many times before in the week that Gwen’s been home. 

How are her classes? Her professors? Her roommate? Good, she responds. Good, good, good. She tells her parents the things she knows they want to hear: about her straight A’s, about the clubs she joined, about the study group she started for her advanced chemistry class. In her answers she is the perfect daughter she knows they want, the epitome of a normal, smart, well-adjusted college student.

There are things that Gwen does not tell her parents. That she is going out at night as Lucky Girl. That she is using her spell book and magic. That she has spent nights at Kevin’s place, the two of them lying close together on his narrow bed. That when she is homesick, it is not for their bare, organized house or their cold, high expectations, but for Grandpa, and saving the day, and the times her and Ben and Kevin would go to Mr. Smoothy late at night and spend hours laughing over nothing at all. 

When they arrive at Ben’s house Gwen is grateful for the break from her parents’ incessant questions. 

They park in the driveway and she steps out and takes in the house that she’s spent many hours in over the past several years. It looks no different than it always has, the perfect picture of middle American life. Car in front, average size, Christmas lights decorating the exterior. Just by looking at it you’d never know that it houses a boy known the universe over for saving the world many times.

Aunt Sandra envelopes Gwen in a hug when she opens the door, gesturing the family to come inside. There is no sign of Ben as the adults exchange greetings. As always, Gwen’s mother is a bit standoffish, appearing uncomfortable in Carl and Sandra’s less formal house. Grandpa Max has yet to arrive, but will be there soon, Carl assures everyone.

“We’ll see,” Gwen hears her father murmur and watches Carl twitch almost imperceptibly.

Sometimes, Gwen has trouble understanding her dad and uncle’s resentment towards their father. Grandpa Max has been nothing but kind to her, going above and beyond to be available whenever she and Ben need it. Sometimes, though she’d never admit it to her parents, she thinks he’s had more influence on her than either of them.

Still, even if she can’t quite see it, she knows that Grandpa wasn’t around much when his sons were young. She sympathizes with him, really she does. She knows what it’s like to live a double life, to be dead on your feet at the end of a day and barely have time for any semblance of normalcy, no matter how much you want it. She can’t help but hurt for those little boys, though, lost and alone with only a mother who’d rather be on another planet.

“How was college, Gwen?” asks Aunt Sandra, jerking Gwen out of her thoughts.

“Good,” Gwen responds. “I had a good time.”

“Straight A’s of course,” her mom butts in. “Gwen’s a very serious student.”

The unlike some others hangs in the air, unsaid but not unheard. Gwen winces, embarrassed by her mother’s subtle jab . Once upon a time she would have taken the opportunity to criticize Ben’s academic performance, but that was years ago. She’s seen Ben work harder than anyone at her college and accomplish much more difficult feats than getting straight A’s.

“Well, of course, with you breathing down her....” Aunt Sandra pauses and sighs, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “Gwen, honey, why don’t you go find your cousin? He’s in his room, I think.”

Gwen nods and obediently heads down the hall, glad to leave the tense conversation. She wishes their parents didn’t have to snap at each other so much, but knows it’s inevitable given their very different parenting styles.

As she walks to Ben’s room, she glances at the walls. They’re covered in pictures of Ben at every age. Ben, sitting with Gwen on their second birthday in front of a cake. Ben, on the first day of kindergarten, Sumo Slammers backpack in hand. Ben, eight or so and covered in mud, holding a soccer ball. 

These pictures prove what few across the universe ever seem to realize—once upon a time Ben was a normal little boy.

Ben’s door is ajar when she reaches it, and Gwen knocks on it as she opens it, not seeing the need for privacy. She’s slept two feet away from him and bandaged nearly every surface on his body that can be bandaged at one point or another.

His room looks as messy as it always does. Bed unmade, clothes, books, and video games sprawled across the floor. It’s a mix of old and new, of the past and the present. There’s a Sumo Slammers poster on the wall and alien flags tacked to the ceiling. A wooden airplane hangs above his bed, a relic from a childhood before space ships and rockets, when flying in a plane still in Earth’s atmosphere was all they could dream of. 

Surprisingly, Ben’s at his desk, bent over a book. It’s a sight she’d never thought she’d see, especially not on Christmas. The blink of fear in his face that he quickly erases with the practiced expertise of someone used to dangerous situations tells her he was doing something he shouldn’t have been.

“Gwen!” He exclaims as he stands up. “Didn’t know you guys were here!”

Gwen can hear the nervousness in his voice and it scares her. What mischief is he up to now? She’d thought he’d grown out of this. 

“Just arrived. What are you up to?” She asks, figuring they should get right to the point.

“Oh. Well, you know... studying and stuff. It’s a big year!” He says defensively. “SATs and stuff,” He adds as an afterthought.

Gwen peers over the desk at the book. It’s obviously a standardized test prep book, though not for the SATs or ACTs. The page of multiple choice questions it’s open to looks vaguely familiar. She think for a minute before she makes the connection. Of course it looks familiar. She’s went over this exact test prep book with Kevin. It’s not an SAT or ACT prep book. It’s a GED prep book.

“Ben...this isn’t for the SAT.”

“Yeah, well. Duh,“ He responds indignantly. ”I’m not that stupid.”

You’re not stupid at all, she thinks, but doesn’t say.

“I didn’t know you were going to drop out,” She says because she didn’t. For all they have hung in the week she’s been home, he never mentioned it.

Ben shrugs and sits down on his unmade bed, glaring at the floor.

“Haven’t yet. Got two more weeks in the semester left after break and I’m gonna after that. Grandpa helped me write out the paperwork. I mean, I’m barely there as it is. I’ve went to like twenty five days of school this semester and half of those I wasn’t there the whole day. I’ll take the GED in February, and be done with it all.”

Gwen sighs and nods. She’d known he’d went to school increasingly sporadically in the past few years but had never known it was that bad.

“You could’ve told me.”

Ben shrugs his skinny shoulders. “Didn’t want to seem stupid compared to Miss Top Ten College.”

“Ben,” She says, more a sigh than anything. “You know I don’t think that.”

She reaches out and puts a hand on his shoulder, waiting for him to nod.

When he does, she asks the question she’s been wondering. “Do your parents know?”

“Not yet. They won’t like it, though. Mom’s always wanted me to graduate, go to college, get a normal job. They’re easy sure, but they think this hero thing is a phase and I’ll outgrow it,” He says with an eye roll.

Gwen laughs. Ben will be a hero to his dying day she knows. Not because of time travel, or Ben 10,000, or Spanner, but because she knows him. Knows that underneath his jovial, confident exterior lies a true hero, a young man who has and will continue to put his life on the line for millions he doesn’t know. 

She wonders idly when the child she once despised became a man she is proud to call her cousin.

“For what it’s worth, I think it’s a good idea.”

“Really?” He asks, sounding surprised.

“Yeah. I do,” Then, with a sly grin she adds “I mean it’s not like you were going to get into as good a school as me, Doofus!”

It’s not necessarily true. With his name, he could probably go anywhere.

“That’s Dr. Doofus to you!”

“Ben!” She exclaims, rolling her eyes.

“Dr. Ben!”

At this point, they are both laughing, grinning like children.

“C’mon, Dweeb, let's go get some cookies,” Ben says with a grin, heading for the door. 

Gwen follows him out, dodging a pile of dirty clothes. She knows they’re growing up, not only in her being at college and Ben finishing school, but also mentally. Everyday they move closer to the adults they’ll be in the future, a future they may or may not have seen. Despite this, though, she knows that some things like Ben’s messiness and their friendship will never change.

**Author's Note:**

> This is kinda weird and doesn’t really have much of a point but I figured why not post it haha!
> 
> Thanks to anyone who made it this far!! =)


End file.
